NIGHTSHIFT

The city doesn't sleep. Neither does your rent.

NIGHTSHIFT is a free, playable cyberpunk courier prototype. Work the neon streets of New Meridian: accept a job, collect the order, follow the route, and make the drop. Start on a battered bicycle and work toward a Black-class executive sedan.

Behind the rain and neon, it's an ordinary shift: platform fees, tips, fuel, wear, customer ratings, and enough money for your next upgrade.

1.5 — People of the Night

The person behind the order is now waiting at the stop. Customers turn toward you and greet you as you arrive. Brake nearby and press E for a short handoff animation, then get your receipt. Clean, late and damaged deliveries get different reactions.

Meet Suki, Afterimage's chrome-armed stage boss; Leena, Mercy's exhausted night medic; Mika, an arcade hacker in a patched raincoat; Vale, a concierge with immaculate gold lapels; Jules, a pirate-radio DJ; Rook, a Portside rigger; Ren, an afterhours dealmaker; and Ivo, a night-shift muralist. Their outfits, silhouettes and conversations give the stops familiar faces.

Deliver food and parcels within 7 m of the destination. Stacked orders meet different recipients, and the final circuit choice takes you to Vale at the gate or Ren at the service lift. Passenger rides keep the same person from boarding to exit. Your existing save carries over.

1.4 — Backstreets

Some customers are off the bright avenues. Ride into the dark alley behind Afterimage, find Mercy's rear loading bay, or take the access road to Monolith's service lift. Follow the actual service-road entrances, read the customer's instructions, and stop at the door to make the handoff.

Free Dispatch always includes a Backstreet run, with its dark route and access premium disclosed before you accept. These jobs are available on the starter bike with stock lamps. Better lights help reveal the lane, obstacles, and corners earlier; a careful rider can complete the same job and earn the same fare with stock equipment.

The Afterhours Circuit now takes the night crew's coffee to Mercy's loading bay. At the locked gate, choose the concierge or follow the dark service road to Ren at Monolith for an extra $16 and 60 seconds. Existing active deliveries keep their saved destinations and progress.

1.3 — Neon & Chrome

The streets have more depth: framed windows, balconies, curved utility pipes, rooftop cooling towers, hanging lightboxes, and service gantries. Curved vehicle bodies, swept glass, detailed wheels, bike cables, a helmet visor, and a stitched courier bag replace the simpler silhouettes. Cyan and pink street lighting catches the wet pavement and metal, with soft steam rising from curb drains.

Better lights are equipment you earn. Start with a narrow, warm 24 m stock beam. Fit the Projector LED for $55 to double reach to 48 m and widen the light across your lane. The next $145 Matrix array upgrade reaches 78 m with broader coverage. Spot traffic and curbs earlier in the darker blocks, then decide whether your next earnings go toward visibility or a faster ride.

Press L, or use the footer light control, to switch between low and high beam. Low beam keeps the light closer; high beam uses the kit's full reach. Compare and buy kits in the garage with G. Lighting ownership carries across all five vehicles and saves with your progress.

1.2 — Afterhours

Start with Play the Afterhours Circuit: four authored jobs designed for roughly ten minutes of riding, decisions, and handoffs. Deliver dinner to the night desk, negotiate a kitchen delay, keep the night crew's coffees upright, and deal with a locked apartment gate. Clean jobs build your e-bike fund; finish the circuit for a shift recap and a one-time $25 bonus.

• Choose the work: take a ready substitution, wait eight seconds for a $6 credit, or carry a second bag for $22 in credits and an extra stop.
• Handle the cargo: secure the coffee cups, or take a $10 open-tray rush. Fast turns, hard braking, and impacts can spill drinks and reduce tips.
• Make the handoff: leave an order with the concierge, or take a dark service-road detour to meet the customer for an extra $16.

Brighter blue-violet streets, warm lantern corridors, elevated walkways, named delivery entrances, and new billboard artwork give the market a stronger identity. More responsive riding, clearer turn directions, and speed-responsive road and vehicle audio help you settle into the route. Existing traffic, pedestrians, shops, and free dispatch remain available.

What's in the prototype

• A procedural 3D city with traffic, rain, illuminated signs, bloom, wet-road effects, and route guidance.
• Five vehicles: a rusty bicycle, an e-bike, a scooter, a sedan, and a luxury Black-class car.
• Food and parcel deliveries, plus passenger work as you progress.
• Tips and platform fees, late and damage deductions, ratings, running costs, repairs, and rest.
• A garage, minimap, shift receipts, browser saves, and an original synthesized ambient soundtrack.
• Three lighting kits with different beam reach and coverage, plus low/high beam control.
• Dark backstreet deliveries with entrance notes, connected service roads, and extra pay included in the offer.
• Eight named customer characters with distinct fashion, greetings, handoff animations, and delivery reactions.

How to play

Choose Play the Afterhours Circuit for the featured shift, or Free Dispatch for open-ended work. Accept an offer and stop beside the pickup marker. Press E to collect or choose a handoff, follow the route, then stop and press E at the destination. The circuit keeps your existing earnings and upgrades; finish an active delivery before starting it.

• WASD / arrow keys: accelerate, reverse, and steer
• Space: brake
• Space + A/D while stopped on a bike: pivot to line up your next turn
• Shift: sprint / boost on smaller vehicles
• E: pickup or drop-off while stopped
• G: garage, lighting upgrades, repairs, and rest
• L: switch low / high beam
• M: map
• C: switch Street Chase / Close Chase camera
• Tab: Focus mode / show HUD
• R: recover to the courier hub; an active job loses 10 seconds
• Escape: pause / close a menu

Before your first shift

A desktop browser with WebGL2 and hardware acceleration is recommended. Click to launch fullscreen, then start your shift to enable sound. Touch controls are available on small screens. Menus and background tabs pause delivery timers.

Progress is stored in this browser. Clearing browser data clears your save. The download includes the complete game and source; Node.js 20 or later can run it locally with node server.mjs.

Balanced, High, and Ultra graphics modes are available. Ultra renders up to 3840 × 2160, depending on your display and device. The neon look uses HDR-inspired tone mapping and bloom with SDR output; this prototype does not output native HDR.

This is a compact prototype with an accelerated economy, not a full-scale open-world release. All money, customers, and businesses are fictional.

Created with AI assistance for code, text, and the billboard artwork. The remaining city visuals and all audio are generated procedurally by the game at runtime. The source download includes the artwork and its provenance.